Special Subject: History, Theory & Criticism of Architecture & Art: Designing Nature

Description

Note: the room for this class has changed to 9-450

Modernist fantasies of infinite growth, premised on the relentless exploitation of natural environments, can be traced back in large part to the early modern period (ca. 1400–1750) in Europe. At this time, artisans, practitioners, intellectuals, and politicians gradually became convinced that humans could master nature, through art and industry, to yield endless abundance and material wealth. Often assimilated by its proponents and later historians under the rubric of “improvement,” it was an explosive and ultimately dangerous idea, and did not go unchallenged: to its detractors, in fact, we owe some our earliest notions of natural balance and sustainability.

 This class will study these debates and their manifestation in designed natures across scales, from art and decorative objects, to gardens, to engineered territories, focusing on Europe and its overseas empires. Throughout, we will explore how nature came to be seen as a resource, and examine how concepts of ingenuity, labor, value, abundance, and scarcity inflected early modern thinking across the interconnected realms of natural philosophy, political economy, and art and architecture.

4.s63 Syllabus (MIT Certificate protected)

Subject Number
4.S63
Semester
Year
2024
Prerequisites
Permission of instructor
Enrollment
Limited to 12
Preference Given To
MArch, SMArchS, PhD HTC
Can Be Repeated for Credit
Yes
Thesis
No
Cancelled
No
Instructors
Schedule
W 9-12
Location
9-450
Credits + Level
3-0-9
G